The Story of the Soil Part 26

"This you could easily verify yourself, Mr. West, by feeding two thousand pounds of any suitable ration, such as corn and clover hay, collecting and drying the total excrement, which will be found to weigh about seven hundred pounds, if it contains no higher percentage of moisture than was contained in the two thousand pounds of food consumed.

"Of course one should not forget that the liquid excrement contains more nitrogen and more pota.s.sium than the solid, and that much of this can be saved and returned to the land by use of plenty of absorbent bedding, and in pasturing there is no danger of any loss from this source."

"That is one great trouble with us," said Mr. West. "We never have as much bedding as we could use to advantage, and it is altogether too expensive to permit us to think of buying straw."

"Probably it would be much less expensive for you to buy ground limestone and then use good alfalfa hay for bedding," said Percy. "I mean exactly what I say," he continued. "Of course I do not advise you to use good alfalfa hay in that way, but it would be a cheap source of very valuable bedding, and it would make an extremely valuable manure. However, I should not hesitate to make liberal use of partially spoiled alfalfa hay for bedding, and you are quite likely to have more or less such hay; for under favorable conditions, such as you can easily have with your soil and climate, alfalfa comes on with a rush in the spring, and often the first crop should be cut before the weather is suitable for making hay. There should be very little or no delay at this time, because the first cutting should be removed in order that it may be out of the way of the second crop, which comes forward still more rapidly under normal conditions.

"Some of our Illinois farmers make strenuous objection to taking care of an alfalfa field that produces $50 worth of the richest and most valuable hay, because it interferes too much with the proper care of a $25 corn crop, which they somehow feel requires and deserves all their time and attention.

"Some of our Virginia farmers have sent to Illinois for their seed corn," said Mr. West; "and they report very good results as a rule, especially on land that has been kept up. On our poor land I think the native corn does better than the Western seed."

"Perhaps that is because it is used to it," suggested Percy, "used to making the struggle for itself on poor land. Fighting for all it gets, so to speak. You know the high-bred animals cannot hold their own with the scrubs when it comes to pawing the snow off the dead wild gra.s.s for a living in the winter, as cattle must do sometimes on the plains of the Northwest.

"Well, there may be something in that," responded Mr. West, "but the western seed corn certainly looks fine."

"Yes, that is true," said Percy. "Our farmers have made marked improvement in seed corn; they also understand very well how to grow corn. They know how and when to prepare the ground, how and when to plant; and how and when to cultivate. When Illinois farmers go to Iowa to buy land, the Iowa real estate men usually take them to see a farm that is owned and operated by a former Illinoisan, and they insist that there are no other farmers who know how to raise corn quite so well as the Illinois farmer. Perhaps the Illinois real estate man would tell a similar story to the Iowa farmer if he ever came there to buy land, but 'Westward the Course of Empire takes its Way' and the man once gone west knows the east no more, except as a market for his surplus products or a good place in which to spend his surplus cash.

"But, here. We must finish our study of the data that Miss Adelaide so kindly helped me to compute."

It was the first time that he had spoken her name in her presence; and she met his glance as she raised her eyes.

What's in a name? What's in a glance?

Percy proceeded without delay; and Adelaide listened as before, her drooping lashes protecting her eyes almost entirely from the view of others. The father and mother heard no name spoken and saw no eyes meet, and yet as Percy continued speaking a second self seemed to be thinking different thoughts and he was conscious of a strong desire to look longer than an instant into those captivating eyes.

A side glance, as she let her lashes droop, revealed to Adelaide that grandma alone had heard and seen. But Percy was a very common-place man. Certainly he had no such face as had held her glance for more than an instant as the afternoon train began to move from the depot platform. Percy was slightly above the average height and solidly built, but he was not tall. His face had often been described as a "perfect blank." No one saw anything of what lay within by merely looking into his eyes, and yet there was a certain indescribable something that appealed to one from those eyes. An elderly German lady once remarked to his mother: "Ihr Sohn hat so etwas gutes im Auge."

Percy was not polished in manner, Adelaide admitted. Professor Barstow had said that he deliberated for half an hour as to whether he should bring his "cawds," for use on Thanksgiving day, because he feared that the custom in "Vi'ginia" might not be the same as in "No'th Cahlina"; while she doubted very much if Percy had any cards whatever. She had never heard it said that he was "strong as an ox and quick as lightning," but perhaps she knew it as well as his schoolmates ever had. She had not heard that one of the college professors, noted for his short-cut expressions, had once told his cla.s.s that he wished they would all "keep their thinking apparatus in as good repair as Johnston's." One thing she did know was that Percy's voice had been trained to talk to a woman, and that no other voice had ever spoken her name as he did. Reserve force? depth of manhood? confidence in his own words? absolute decision? wealth of tenderness? persistent endurance? unfailing loyalty? boundless affection? Deep in her heart Adelaide felt that these were among the attributes revealed in Percy's voice. When he spoke all listened.

His voice was low-pitched but rich in tone and volume and sincerity,--that was the word.--The whole man seemed to feel and speak when he spoke. He surely can have no secrets. His mother must know all that he knows of his own self; but were those letters from his mother? The handwriting was very modern. Even her father made an old-fas.h.i.+oned C and W in signing his own name. Had he not looked at the writing on both those letters before he noticed the others? and why did he remain so long in his room before coming down to dinner?

Had he not been in college--in a great University where there were hundreds of the brightest girls of his own State? But why should any girl be interested in farming? Teaching is such a cultured profession.

Only a moment--just while he was sorting the papers upon which they had made the computations, but a hundred thoughts had pa.s.sed through her mind. Now he was speaking.

"You remember we took a sample of the subsoil on the sloping land.

This soil is evidently residual, formed in place from the disintegration of the underlying rock. The soil may represent only a small part of the original rock, because of the loss by leaching.

Here are the amounts of plant food found in two million pounds of the subsoil:

590 pounds of nitrogen 1,980 pounds of phosphorus 37,940 pounds of pota.s.sium 24,808 pounds of magnesium 31,320 pounds of calcium

"A splendid subsoil," Percy continued. "I know of none better in Illinois, except that we sometimes have more calcium in the form of carbonate, and even somewhat more pota.s.sium in places; but this must be a fine subsoil for alfalfa, where the bed rock is not too near the surface. Of course there is but little nitrogen in the subsoil, but that is true of all normal soils, because the nitrogen is contained only in the organic matter, and that decreases rapidly with depth and usually becomes insufficient to color the soil below 18 inches."

"Now," began Mr. West, "from these different a.n.a.lyses or invoices, and from your discussion of these results, I take it that you would not advise me to purchase any commercial fertilizer for use on the land we are still using in my rotation; but you think we should make large use of limestone and legume crops."

"Yes, Sir. Phosphorus is markedly deficient only in the very level upland which has been allowed to remain uncleared for fifty years or more, and nitrogen is certainly the limiting element on the land you are trying to keep in your rotation. While you cannot hope to put into your soil any such reserve of slow-acting organic matter as we still have in our comparatively new soils of the West, we may keep in mind that a small amount of quick-acting fresh organic matter is more effective than a large supply of what we might call embalmed material that decomposes very, very slowly unless a.s.sisted by the addition of more active organic matter. It frequently happens that one soil containing a large reserve of old humus, and hence showing more organic carbon and more nitrogen, by the ultimate invoice, than another soil, is, nevertheless, less productive, because the other soil contains a larger amount of fresh organic matter which decays quickly and thus furnishes more nitrogen and liberates more of the other elements from the insoluble minerals of the soil because of the greater abundance of the active products of organic decay.

"I think you should keep in mind, however, that, for every twenty-five bushels of corn you wish to produce, you should return to the soil one ton of clover or four tons of average farm manure, and that for one ton of produce hauled to the barns and fed, you will probably not return to the land more than one ton of manure."

CHAPTER x.x.x

"STONE SOUP"

THE next forenoon Percy and Mr. West spent some time making some further tests with hydrochloric acid and litmus paper in different places on the farm; but the result only confirmed the previous examinations.

"I never before saw any such light as now appears," said Mr. West.

"It seems to me that for the first time in the history of Westover, covering about two centuries, a real plan can be intelligently made based upon definite information looking toward the positive improvement of the soil. While you have been away, I have been looking up the lime matter. I find that a lime is being advertised, and sold in small amounts, that is called hydrated lime, and it is especially prepared as an agricultural lime. It is recommended by some dealers as being fully equal to the ordinary commercial fertilizer which sells at about $25 a ton, while this hydrated agricultural lime can be bought for $8 a ton, and I think for a little less in larger amounts. You mentioned also that you had seen some one who had used hydrated lime, but it didn't seem to make much of a clover crop. Of course, I understand from what you said that his soil contained only one hundred and sixty pounds of phosphorus, and I take it that lime alone could not markedly improve his soil; but still I would like to know why, if he has one hundred and sixty pounds of phosphorus in his plowed soil, he could not produce a few good crops of clover. HOW much phosphorus does it require for a ton of clover?"

"One ton of clover contains only five pounds of phosphorus," Percy replied, "and of course the roots must also require some phosphorus, although after the crop is produced and removed, the phosphorus contained in the roots remains for the benefit of subsequent crops.

Thus we might suppose the land which contains one hundred and sixty pounds of phosphorus ought to furnish the phosphorus needed for a three ton crop of clover every year for ten years; but in actual practice no such results are secured. The invoice of the plant food in the soil is a matter of very great importance, for it reveals the mathematical possibilities, but another matter of almost equal importance is the problem of liberating plant food from this supply sufficient for the crops to be produced year by year.

"Decaying or active organic matter is one of the great factors in the liberation of plant food, and undoubtedly the extension or distribution of the root system of the growing plant is another very potent factor. If the root surfaces come in contact with one per cent. of the total surface of the soil particles in the plowed soil, then we might conceive of a relations.h.i.+p whereby one per cent. of the phosphorus in that soil would be dissolved or liberated from the insoluble minerals and thus become available as food for the growing crop. We know that the rate of liberation varies greatly, with different soils and seasons, and crops also differ in their power to a.s.sist themselves in the extraction of mineral plant food from the soil. The presence of limestone encourages the development of certain soil organisms which tend to hasten some decomposition process. But, all things considered, it may be said, speaking very generally, that the equivalent of about one per cent. of the total phosphorus contained in the plowed soil does become available for the crops under average conditions. On this basis one hundred and sixty pounds of phosphorus would furnish about one and one-half pounds for the crops during one season. But in such a soil the phosphorus still remaining may be the most difficultly soluble, and the supply of decaying organic matter may be extremely low, so that possibly less than one pound per acre would become available, and this would meet the needs of less than four hundred pounds per acre of clover hay. Furthermore, the supply grows less and less with every crop removed.

"With your ordinary soil, carrying twelve hundred and seventy pounds of phosphorus, perhaps you may be able by a liberal use of decaying organic matter to liberate ten or fifteen pounds of phosphorus, or sufficient for a crop of forty to sixty bushels of corn; and, with a subsoil richer in phosphorus than the surface, and with more or less of the partially depleted surface removed by erosion year by year, the supply of phosphorus is thus permanently provided for unless the bed rock is brought too near the surface. It is doubtful if the direct addition of phosphorus to your sloping lands will ever be necessary or profitable. Certainly such addition is not advisable until you have brought the land to as high a state of fertility as is practicable by means of limestone, legumes, and manure."

"That seems clearly to be the case with most of the land now under cultivation on this farm," said Mr. West "Can you tell me anything about this hydrated lime?

"I can tell you it is correctly named," Percy replied. "_Hydrated_ means _watered,_ and an investment in hydrated lime is properly cla.s.sed with other watered investments. If you prefer to use hydrated lime I would suggest that you buy fresh burned lump lime and do the hydrating yourself, which only requires that you add eighteen pounds of water to each fifty-six pounds of quick lime; in other words, that you slack the lime by adding water in the proper proportion. Both quick lime and hydrated lime are known as caustic lime. Webster says that the word _caustic_ means 'capable of destroying the texture of anything or eating away its substance by chemical action.'

"This definition is correct for caustic lime, as you can easily determine by keeping your hand in a bucket of slacked lime a few minutes. Caustic lime eats away the organic matter of the soil. In an experiment conducted by the Pennsylvania Experiment Station, during a period of sixteen years, eight tons of hydrated lime destroyed organic matter equivalent to thirty-seven tons of farm manure, as compared with the use of equivalent applications of ground limestone; and, as an average of the sixteen years, every ton of caustic lime applied liberated seven dollars' worth of organic nitrogen, as compared with ground limestone. That this much liberated nitrogen was essentially wasted and lost is evidenced by the fact that larger crops were produced where ground limestone was used than where burned lime was applied.

"The limestone must be quarried whether used for grinding or for burning, and the grinding can be done for twenty-five cents a ton where a large equipment with powerful machinery is used and where cheap fuel is provided, as near the coal mining districts. It need not be very finely ground. If ground to pa.s.s a sieve with twelve meshes to the linear inch, it is very satisfactory, provided that all of the fine dust produced in the grinding is included in the product. You see the soil acids are slightly soluble and they attack the limestone particles and are thus themselves destroyed or neutralized. If, however, you ever wish to use raw rock phosphate, insist upon its being sufficiently fine-ground that at least ninety per cent. of it will pa.s.s through a sieve with ten thousand meshes to the square inch, this being no finer than is required for the basic slag phosphate, of which several million tons are now being used each year in the European countries. Like the raw rock phosphate, the slag gives the best results only when used in connection with plenty of decaying organic matter."

"That reminds me," said Mr. West, "of what one of the fertilizer agents said about raw phosphate. He said the use of raw phosphate with farm manure reminded him of 'stone soup,' which was made by putting a clean round stone in the kettle with some water. Pepper and salt were added, then some potatoes and other vegetables, a piece of b.u.t.ter and a few sc.r.a.ps of meat. 'Stone soup,' thus made, was a very satisfactory soup. He said that in practically all of the tests of raw phosphate conducted by the various State Experiment Stations, manure has been used as a means of supplying organic matter to liberate the phosphorus from the raw rock, but in such large quant.i.ty as to be entirely impracticable for the average farmer to use on his own fields; and his opinion was that the entire benefit was due to the manure. He had a little booklet ent.i.tled 'Available or Unavailable Plant Food--Which?' published by the National Fertilizer a.s.sociation, and said I could get a copy by addressing the Secretary at Nashville, Tennessee."

"Fortunately," said Percy, "this is not a question of opinion but one of fact; and it has been discovered that the fertilizer agents who are long on opinions and short on facts prefer to sell four tons of complete fertilizer for $80, or even two tons of acid phosphate for $30, rather than to sell one ton of raw phosphate, containing the same amount of phosphorus, for $7.50. In the manufacture of acidulated fertilizers, one ton of raw phosphate, containing about two hundred and fifty pounds of the element phosphorus, is mixed with one ton of sulfuric acid to make two tons of acid phosphate; and, as a rule, these two tons of acid phosphate are mixed with two tons of filler to make four tons of complete fertilizer. A favorite filler is dried peat, which is taken from some of the peat bogs, as at Manito, Illinois, and s.h.i.+pped in train loads to the fertilizer factories. The peat is not considered worth hauling onto the land in Illinois, even where the farmers can get it for nothing; but it contains some organic nitrogen, and, by the addition of a little pota.s.sium salt, the agent is enabled to call the product a 'complete' fertilizer.

"Experiments with the use of raw rock phosphate have been conducted by the State Agricultural Experiment Stations over periods of twelve years in Maryland, eleven years in Rhode Island, twenty-one years (in two series) in Ma.s.sachusetts, fourteen years (in two series) in Maine, twelve years in Pennsylvania, thirteen years in Ohio, four years in Indiana, and from four to six years on a dozen different experiment fields in different parts of Illinois.

"I have here some quotations taken from the directors of several of these experiment stations which fairly represent the opinions which they have expressed concerning their own investigations. Thus the Maryland director says:

"'The results obtained with the insoluble phosphates has cost usually less than one-half as much as that with the soluble phosphates. Insoluble South Carolina phosphate rock produced a higher total average yield than dissolved South Carolina rock.'

"The Rhode Island director comments as follows:

"' With the pea, oat, summer squash, crimson clover, j.a.panese millet, golden millet, white podded Adzuka bean, soy bean, and potato, raw phosphate gave very good results; but with the flat turnip, table beet, and cabbage it was relatively very inefficient.'

"The following statement is from the Ma.s.sachusetts director:

"'It is possible to produce profitable crops of most kinds by liberal use of natural phosphates, and in a long series of years there might be a considerable money saving in depending at least in part upon these rather than upon the higher priced dissolved phosphates.'